"Get your ducks in a row."

I understood it to be derived from an early variation of bowling, where the "pins" were called skittles or ducks. To get started, you had to get your ducks in a row.

Phrase and Word Origins

"What is the origin of "ducks in a row"??
(Etymology)

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, ISBN 0-06-270133-9:

An American expression meaning to have one's arrangements completed, to have things organized or lined up; or, literally, to have one's skittles set up. In an American bowling alley the skittles, or pins, are called ducks.


From the Phrase Finder Forum:

Primitive versions of modern bowling were known many centuries ago. Pins of varied sizes and shapes were employed. Eventually they were standardized at fifteen inches in both height and circumstances. Originally called ten-pins, the equipment used in Europe was employed in the earliest American bowling saloons. The game was modified by introduction of a short, slender pin that was compared with a duck and, by extension, called them duckpins. So many people reset so many pins in rows that one who completes a task is commended as having put his 'ducks in a row.'

Phrase Finder Forum

From the Forty Ducks page:

How simple it seemed. My marks were excellent. The second year, reading Caesar's Gallic wars was not. That's where "Forty Ducks in a Row" came into being. Caesar's Latin actually read, "Forte Dux in Aro" -translated to "Brave Leader in Battle". We wise guys merely visualized it the other way perhaps because it was easier to remember.

The Forty Ducks Page

From Chuck Moreland's Phrases with Origings page:

Baby ducklings swim in a straight line behind the mother duck. If the ducklings stray to far, the mother duck will get them back in line, that is get her ducks in a row.

Chuck Moreland's Phrases with Origins

Other possibilities:

As a nickname for the soldiers of the Bombay Presidency
From a children's game called "duckstones"
From an arcade game of marksmanship involving plastic ducks
From a sailor's trousers, called "ducks"
From military tents made of untwiled linen
From a tank (or similar military vehicle) formation
From the formation ducks use when flying low over water

Of these selections, we suggest that Brewer's explanation is the most plausible."

When I use the phrase I need to get my ducks in a row I generally mean I need to get organized. This is a common phrase in labor negotiations and I would assume other types of negotiations as well, i.e., to prevail you must have you ducks in a row. Which leads to the weight theory being at the origin of the phrase the weight of your argument will stand if you have all your ducks in a row - just a guess.

Never heard that phrase before

Quack, quack! Quack. quackquack.

That's spelled 'duct'

Thanks to everyone for your help, especially LarryBS.

I am somewhat chagrinned at the answer 'duck pins'. I heard of them as a kid, but I never connected the duck pins to ".. . in a row."

The duck pins theory seems the most logical derivation, but the mother duck being followed by several fluffy critters walking single file is much more appealing.

Thanks again. It was fun.

Thanks to everyone for your help, especially LarryBS.

I am somewhat chagrinned at the answer 'duck pins'. I heard of them as a kid, but I never connected the duck pins to ".. . in a row."

The duck pins theory seems the most logical derivation, but the mother duck being followed by several fluffy critters walking single file is much more appealing.

Thanks again. It was fun.

ok,billy,

"As independent as a hog on ice..." I assumed, at one time, that the phrase meant very dependent. Now, I'm not so certain.

To Letty:

I think a hog who managed to get ON ice, would be very Independent indeed! Don't you, (at second thought?)

A hog on ice where in the world did you come up with that Letty? A new one for me. What a great picture I have in my mind.

Hi...The definition--to get organized--seems to not be in dispute.
As for the derivation, I had always assumed (until a few minutes ago) that it referred to how a duck-hunter would place his decoys in order to lure in some birds. I've never hunted but it made sense to me that one would align the decoys parallel to the real ducks' flight path. -rjb-

hey, Jackie, (Jacque?)

Down here, it's called a hawg on ice...black ice...Bike Week at Daytona Beach. Varoom..varoom.

Like your "Avatar?" Something interesting about seeing the back of one's head.

Familiar with the expression, "four legs-- good. Two legs baaaaad."?

What animals we are.

We are human beans of course.

Knight, jonboy...Shifflet's a respected name in West Virginie.

and Joanne, what picture is that?

Hey, Billy boy...Where did you go?Back to the halls of ivy?

I gotta get my moorhens in a row.

A hawg on ice.

oh...that picture!

Happy Valentine's Day, Letty.

I am not familiar with a two-wheeled Hawg...must be something else Southern.
The Avatar with the BACK showing is a little of shyness showing through, I suppose. I like the blonde hair (my blonde hair) better than the "looks" on my face. Not that it matters a lot, anyway. I was in kind of a hurry to put up a symbol- and that one sort of struck me.

About the two wheeled hawg on black ice- 'Isn't that furiously fast and unstable thing bad enough on perfect surfaces?' Dependence out there for SURE....depending on God to see that one gets back to solid ground and on two legs.

I am unfamiliar with your expression: 'four legs good- two legs baaaad'.
from where comes it, do you know?

Jackie, That reference was from George Orwell's Animal Farm, a fascinating read.

"Hawg on black ice" refers to motorcycles, and "black ice" are road conditions where there is no snow, but dangerous due to rain slick asphalt.